The Archer, The Mummer, and the Wolf
by Carissa Faeky
Summary: Assassin or companion? I guess these two archers will have to figure it out on their own time. KilixOC
1. Chapter 1

"Did you lot hear that?" Kili peered into the dense brush of the forest, glaring as a rabbit hopped out from behind a particularly prickly bush and wiggled its nose at the warriors.

"Oh, aye, we heard it. Are you getting scared by a bunny, now? Mayhap this journey isn't for you, after all," Fili joked, lightly punching his indignant younger brother on the shoulder as the rest of their companions, a company of dwarves as well as a hobbit and a wizard, laughed heartily.

"Leave off," Kili grumbled, focusing his eyes on the trail ahead and choosing to ignore the illogical, yet uncomfortable feeling in his gut.

Moments later, Thorin held up a gloved hand, stopping the ragtag group for the night. The sun had long gone below the horizon to rest and the travelers were saddle-sore. "Fili, Kili, you two take the first watch. Nori, Ori, you two are to take the second watch. I'll take the third. The rest of you, get as much sleep as you can, we'll push on in the morning." Their King cast his eyes once more about the camp as his friends and warriors settled under cloaks and blankets to keep out the frosty night air.

Glancing at his brother, Kili pointed to a vantage point Fili could keep watch from while Kili patrolled the woods a bit for wargs and orcs. Fili smirked, showing his teeth in a feral gesture of agreement. "Don't get too scared by the wildlife, brother."

Rolling his eyes, Kili stomped into the forest, startling a wren who had taken shelter on a branch Kili brushed past. _If somebody _has_ been following us, they're going to regret it._ Pursing his lips, his callused hand caressed the polished wood of his beloved bow out of habit. No one would cause his friends harm, not while he was around. Their journey had taken them far from their usual stomping grounds, but that did not mean they were uncomfortable. Life had forced them to be used to not having a stationary place to call home. Traveling was their norm.

Growing up with their Uncle Thorin, fighting was a natural part of their lives. When Fili went off to practice with their uncle each morning, Kili had gotten so upset at being left behind, he crafted himself a makeshift bow to practice with. Their mother had taken it away from him when she found him using one of her good baskets as target practice in the woods and informed Thorin he was going to teach Kili at the same time as Fili. From then on, Kili tagged along to Fili's sword practice and picked up as many techniques as he could. Both of them learned sword fighting, hand to hand combat, and archery, but when it came to fighting styles, Fili concentrated more on mastering sword work while Kili continued polishing his skills as an archer.

Spinning as a stick snapped on the forest floor behind him on his walking path, Kili instinctively nocked an arrow to his bow as he spun. A large grey wolf stared unafraid into his eyes, his gaze never leaving the archers eyes. Tilting its head, it considered the man in front of him. _If I kill it now, it would make for good eating. I'll make it a clean kill. Straight through the eye._ The well-groomed wolf didn't move, even as Kili set his aim. _Is this wolf just stupid?_ Narrowing his eyes, Kili pulled back on the bowstring with steady hands. That is, until a pine cone beaned him over the head and he jerked, losing his aim as the wolf dashed into the brush. "Damn it!" He cursed, spinning around to see who had made him lose his kill. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Steam escaped Kili's lips in the frosty air as he searched for the pine cone thrower. Fili tapped his brother on the shoulder from behind, startling the dwarf once again. "Fili, you Idiot! I almost bagged a wolf!" He yelled, annoyed.

Raising an inquisitive brow and chuckling in mirth, the blonde dwarf shook his head, his beaded braids clanking against each other. "I don't know what you're on about," He paused, trying to hold in his laughter, "But that lad up sure has excellent aim." Fili pointed out a figure escaping on the path; they were not bothering to disguise their retreating form. Carrying a small knapsack on their back and a bow in their hand, the figure speeded ahead as the brothers chased him down. The trickster had the advantage of speed, but the brothers had the advantage of size to crash through the brush. Kili fired a warning shot, letting the arrow whiz by his adversary's head.

"Stop!" He called, his feet churning in their effort to catch up to the escapee. "Why are you following us?" The figure ignored him, the wolf bursting out of the brush next to the boy, nudging his hand with its nose. Kili shot once more, intending for the arrow to go over the boy's head, but it was aimed too low; if the boy didn't duck, their head would be shish-kebabed. Luckily for Kili's conscience and the boy's life, the wolf saw the shot and placed a firm paw on the boy's back, forcing him to stumble. It appeared the arrow managed to catch the back of the boy's skull as it flew and for a moment, Kili's heart stopped, thinking the boy might have been severely injured. Fortunately, all the arrow caught was the villain's hair tie. Scrambling to their feet as brunette waves tumbled from their previous confinement in a tattered ribbon, the fugitive ignored the annoyance and continued hurrying down the path away from Kili.

Clenching his hands tightly into fists, he forced himself to move faster. The attacker spun, firing three arrows in quick succession, each whisking by Kili's face with millimeters to spare. "_This guy might actually be a better archer than me_," Kili thought, his forehead wrinkling in irritation. Kili could see the edge of the forest from his place on the path; he'd been past this forest once before in his life. The rocky path opened suddenly to a precipitous cliff, the kind someone wouldn't survive a fall from. "Oi!" He called. "I really wouldn't go that way if I were you," he warned, his voice booming through the trees. The runner ignored him, choosing to continue dodging through the brush. "Shit."

Watching as the escapee tried to skid to a halt, he knew the boy had put on the breaks too late. Kili began slowing down so he wouldn't go over the edge with the poor soul who didn't listen soon enough. The boy detached his pack from his back, throwing it to the dusty ground as he attempted to lessen the weight attached to him so his bow wouldn't break under the strain of being scraped along the ground. Cringing in sympathetic pain, Kili strode closer to the boy. He had frozen on the edge of the cliff and was waving his wolf away with violent shakes of their hand. Trying to wave Kili away, the boy's feet dangled off of the edge of the cliff. Kili could see thick blood dripping from a deep gouge in the tissue of the boy's arm probably caused by his slide along the stony ground. "Stay there, okay? I still want to know why you've been following us, but I'll get you out of this mess. This was the first moment Kili got a good look at his attacker and he widened his eyes in surprise. "Y-you're a girl?"

The brunette rolled her eyes, scrabbling for a better grasp on the loose soil around her form. Kili shook off his surprise and reached out his hand. Soil slid towards the cliff as Kili's weight shifted forward, bouncing off of the girl's nose. The ground wasn't solid enough to support the girl's weight, let alone a sturdy dwarf's weight. Having enough intelligence not to follow his friend, the wolf paced impatiently about the edge of the loose soil and whined softly. Rapidly snapping a thick branch off of a nearby tree with ease, Kili stuck the branch out to the girl intending to pull her to safe ground. The girl glared distrustfully at him, but reached for the lifeline nonetheless. As her weight shifted along the ground, the rock face crumbled under her. Clinging desperately off of the branch Kili held out to her, she struggled to grip the bending branch with both hands long enough for Kili to reel her in. Her entire body hung in midair, blood dripping down her arm and side, yet she didn't make a sound.

Holding her eyes closed and breathing deeply to steel herself, she swung her body once towards her one chance of survival. Anticipating the girl was going to miss her foothold, Kili dove forward and grasped the girl's wrist. Their bodies hit the ground, the girl's chest slamming harshly into the rocky outcropping of eroding stone. Her wolf lunged forward and caught the back of Kili's cloak with its teeth, dragging the two dusty, strange people back from the brink of falling.

Moonlight shone down on the pair of raggedly breathing strangers, illuminating beads of sweat in its light. Foggy breath enveloped them as the wolf lapped at the blood running off of the girl's skin. Clenching her hands into fists, she tried to remove herself from Kili's grasp but he pulled her back into his arms. "I can't just let you go. First of all, you need to see a healer. Secondly, you could be an orc spy. What's to stop you from going back to your leader so you can plan an ambush? Nuh uh, you, you're coming back with me."

Glaring at him with enough fire to fry an egg, she instinctively traced her side for her quiver and hissed under her breath when she realized it was out of reach behind Kili's back.

"What's your name?"

Blinking languidly, she dug her nail into the soft earth beneath them, spelling out her name.

Studying the markings she'd made, he said, "Nierea? And you're a human, right?" Studying her form while continuing to trap her slender, tanned wrists with his strong hand, Kili waited for an answer. She shrugged and nodded, wincing as her shoulder muscles convulsed, spewing out a new flow of blood. "Shit, we need to staunch that." _Where in the seven hells did Fili go?_ While he was chasing down the pine cone thrower, it had barely registered Fili had stopped following long ago. He recalled Fili mentioning he was going to grab rope from the camp 'in case my little brother actually catches his prey.'

"I figured my baby brother could handle it," Fili smirked, dropping bandages and rope next to Kili. "Here, her wounds need to be tended to before they fester." Nierea tried to scramble away from the brothers' touch, but Kili held her still in his arms while Fili peeled her tunic top away from her arm, plucking out strands of fabric from the bloody gouges in her arm. Holding his hand out for Kili's canteen, Fili poured the water over the wound. Tightening his arms around the girl so she wouldn't cause herself more pain when the water dislodged gravel from her wound, they watched as grime washed away from the cut. One particularly stubborn stone refused to come loose from her skin, so Kili lightly prodded the chipped stone. Nierea shot straight up, nearly clocking Kili in the jaw as she stumbled away from the brothers, tripping over her moccasin clothed feet and nearly landing on her face. Kili's arm whisked her away from the ground before she landed. "Come on, milady. We're trying to help you. I saved your life, remember?" Kili reminded her as the wolf lapped anxiously at her face. "Let me see that wound."

Gingerly, Nierea adjusted her arm so she was able to get a good look at her damage. Sighing as her eyes wandered the carnage, she centered herself and stuck her pointer finger and thumb directly into the gouge. As she removed the stone, the brothers realized it was not actually a stone, but an orc-made arrow, created with jagged edges to tear at the flesh when it enters the body. Swaying, she grabbed ahold of her wolf to steady herself. All of the blood drained from her face; even her grey river stone colored eyes seemed darker than before in the moonlight. When she had a moment to compose herself, she ran her uninjured hand down her side, motioning for the bandages. Fili handed them over with a word of warning about not binding a wound too tightly. The brothers blushed and averted their eyes as she lifted her shirt just high enough to wrap the wound.

"It's highly improper," Kili mumbled, the tips of his ears turning a bit crimson, "for a lady to lift her shirt in the company of men." _Stranger still, how'd she come by an orc arrow to her shoulder?_

Even through the pained look on her face, Nierea smirked and spat on the ground to show how she felt about being ladylike.

"Don't you talk?" Fili asked curiously, twisting the bottom of one of his blond braids between inquisitive fingers. She shrugged, packing extra bandages into the deepest gouge while wrapping more bandages around the pack to hold it still. She pantomimed sewing with her hand and raised her eyebrows inquisitively. "That would be a no, then," Kili sighed. Rolling her eyes, she turned to Fili and nodded her head in thanks for the bandages. Scurrying around Kili's sprawled body, she grasped her pack and quiver, her finger lingering over her bow. Glaring at the girl, he glanced up at his brother, noticing they shared suspicion over the girl's circumstance. She looked to be about twenty five in human years, but not all humans look as they should when it comes to age. _And what kind of human is friends with a wolf? _Kili shuddered. Wolves look too much like Wargs for his comfort.

"Who's she?" Bilbo's voice broke through the relative silence of the forest. Kili's head jerked painfully towards the hobbit, grunting as he winced and rotated his head on his neck to relieve the whiplash. Gloin and Thorin followed closely behind Bilbo, freezing when they spotted Nierea.

Lifting Nierea off of the ground by her collar, Thorin smashed her into a tree behind the boys. "What're you doing here?" His upper lip wrinkled in disgust, glaring down at Nierea with suspicion in his eyes. Not taking his eyes off of her, he didn't wait for an answer. "Kili, Fili, tie her up. A woman she may be, but that doesn't mean she's not a killer." He pressed his muscular arm down harder upon her throat, beginning to throttle her as she struggled in vain to get loose. "You are no innocent. What was it the villagers called you? The Mummer of Carn Dûm?" Turning to face his nephews, he placed his free hand on Kili's shoulders and gazed into his nephews' eyes. "Until we figure out why she's here, she'll be you and your brother's responsibility. Make sure one of you has an eye on her at all times, she's known to be an assassin-for-hire and an expert escape artist." Hauling Nierea to her feet by her collar, he got in her face, spittle flying from his lips. "I swear on Mahal, if you harm anyone of this company, your neck shall no longer have a head attached to it." Nierea never flinched, seeming to stare down fearlessly at the dwarven king even though he could kill her with a bit more force. He released her, throwing her to the ground.

"Uncle," Kili protested, grasping the lapels of Thorin's coat to press his point, "I hardly think she's going anywhere. She almost died from falling off of a cliff, and she just yanked a hooked arrow out of her upper arm."

"Are you arguing with me, boy?" Thorin's eyes widened, threatening of things to come if Kili dared disobey him.

Kili shook his head, snatching the rope cord from the ground apologized under his breath. The wolf started to snarl and come at Kili, but a single motion from Nierea settled the fur on his shoulders and he backed off and dove towards the woods, escaping through the undergrowth. Thorin cursed, muttering to Gloin about their missed chance to cage the wolf before it would cause trouble. Staring calmly into Kili's eyes, Nierea offered her wrists, holding her palms up in a show of surrender. Binding the rope tightly around Nierea's wrists, he took the extra end of the rope and bound it to his own wrist in a makeshift leash.

"Take her pack, but don't let her take her bow," Thorin demanded. Reaching around her back, KIli relieved her of her pack and quiver, leaving her bow leaning against the old tree. He helped her to her feet, wrapping his arm around her uninjured one to steer her in the right direction. Glancing back, Kili spotted Fili pick up her bow and hid it in his own pack. He noticed Kili staring at him and winked, putting a finger to his lips.

It seemed his brother was wondering the same thing Kili sensed; was this girl actually as Thorin described? If not, why wouldn't she speak up and defend herself? Anyway, in that moment Kili was grateful to his brother. A bow was an archer's most prized possession; Kili could see the pain in her eyes when she realized she'd be made to leave it behind. Someone who loves their bow that much wouldn't kill for pay; he could feel it. Besides, she could have killed him when he was aiming for her wolf friend, but she threw a pine cone at him, instead. She could have picked them off one by one, but she chose to protect her wolf and show herself, something a cold-blooded killer wouldn't do. He was used to listening to his uncle without qualms, but something about his opinion on Nierea didn't sit right with him. Sighing under his breath, he continued on, leading the bleeding girl closer to their campsite.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for the kind words, favorites, and follows, my wonderful readers! I do hope you continue liking it, and if there's ever anything you want me to know, message me or review! I love you all.

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Resting near the campfire after their watch finished, Kili relaxed, thankful for the dry heat of the fire. Surging waves echoed into the campsite from the tumultuous river down the grassy hill. The sound of the river, coupled with the roar of the fire, nearly lulled him to sleep. A tug on the rope tied to his wrist reminded him of his unwilling companion and his eyes drifted towards the girl. The accidental tug had come when she curled up her body in the fetalposition to conserve body heat. Wind lifted tufts of her long brown hair and hid her eyes from his view. She'd tucked her injured arm under her body, creating a shield with her body so no one would see her weakened side.

Earlier in the night, he'd offered her some stew, only to have the bowl taken away by Thorin. When Kili protested, Thorin hardened his gaze at his nephew and said, "Would you have me feed someone meant to kill us?"

After Thorin stomped away, Kili offered her some of his own stew from his bowl, knowing the pain of hunger and not wanting anyone to suffer from it. He knew she could smell it and wanted some; he'd spotted her glancing longingly at the pot when she thought he wasn't looking. She wouldn't look at him, much less the bowl. Keeping her head turned straight ahead so as not to leave her back a target, she never spared a glance at the stew. Kili didn't know if it was pride that was keeping her from speaking or eating, but he didn't like it. "Fine, then. It's just going to go to waste, then, because I'm not going to eat it. It's far too salty. Here, taste it." He speared a chunk of venison from the bowl and held it out to her. Hesitating momentarily, she almost turned her head to keep from giving into temptation, but she nibbled on the edge of the meat instead. After the chunk of meat was gone, she had refused to eat any more, regardless of Kili's prodding.

She wasn't thin, exactly, but her features might have been delicate if the world hadn't hardened her expressions. Her olive complexion came from long periods of time in the sun. Faded scars covered her body, or at least the parts not covered by her frayed cotton tunic, makeshift leather armor, and furry animal pelts specifically sewn to help her keep warm. Her moccasins were obviously homemade and well loved, but as durable as anything any forest dweller might need. Forest green bead patterning added further camouflage to her shoes, with detailed spirals and splotches of beadwork all over the moccasins. Once in a while, Kili spotted lithe muscles shifting under her shirt, emphasizing his belief she wasn't just any woman. Her body wasn't built for strength like his was, but she was built for speed. He had no doubt she could outrun nearly anything on a good day except, perhaps, rhosgobel rabbits. If there hadn't been a cliff in the way, she would have gotten away. Callouses on the tips of her fingers spoke volumes of days spent climbing giant trees.

Realizing how late it had gotten, Kili rolled his shoulders to relieve the tension that had built up in the last day. Eyeing Nierea, he could see her trying not to show she was cold. Her body would vibrate from time to time, giving away her intended secret. Stiffening as Kili draped his cloak over the two of them; she stared suspiciously into his eyes.

"Look, we're tied together. The cloak is going to end up covering you whether you like it or not because I refuse to sleep cold," he mumbled, rolling over to face away from her icy stare. Even without facing her, Kili could tell she was making a conscious effort to maintain a position on the ground as far away from him as possible. He didn't allow sleep to overtake him until he heard Nierea's breathing to even out in the throes of slumber. Eyes closing, the last thing he heard before losing consciousness was the growling wolf howl from deep within the forest.

Waking with the dawn light, Kili felt a figure at his back and rolled over, nearly squashing Nierea in the process. Eyes snapping open at the being woken suddenly, she flung herself backwards automatically, dragging the dwarf with her. The pair landed awkwardly in a heap, Nierea's head cradled by Kili's hand and her body being smothered under his body. She used her shoulder to shove him away, huffing angrily.

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized, red faced. "I forgot you were there. Why didn't you say- Oh. Oh, yeah, the mute thing. Are you really mute, or do you just choose not to speak?"

Glaring at him seemed to be her usual mode of conversation, but this glare was cut short with a pained wince. Kili studied her as her face turned grey, her breath coming in shorter spurts. Blinking slowly, she tightened her lips into a thin, bloodless line.

"What? What's wrong?" Kili worried. _I've only been watching her for a night, and I'm already not doing a very good job of it._ She turned away from him, stiffening her side just enough Kili could see her wounds had bled through the bandages. They hadn't sewn the wound like they were supposed to last night, causing her more pain. Clenching and unclenching his fists in anger that someone, even an orc, would hurt a woman, he gently turned her around to face him. Her eyes wouldn't meet his. "Why didn't you say something earlier? Or, at least, you could have woken me up if it'd gotten bad. How'd you get shot, anyway?" It couldn't have been too long before he'd found her yesterday, seeing as she hadn't yet had a chance to take the arrow out of her flesh.

She shrugged, bending down to write a single word in the dirt. "Orcs."

"I knew _that_; the arrow's design said more than you have since I met you. Just tell me _why_ you were shot."

She shook her head stubbornly, frustrating Kili further. Taking her by her shoulders, he staved off the desire to shake her until she gave up the secrets she was unnecessarily keeping from him.

"Will you tell me sometime? If you don't turn out to be an assassin?" He rolled her bandages up her arm, taking care to not let the fibers sink into the wound.

She nodded.

"You never agree to things so readily."

She shrugged.

"You aren't an assassin, are you?"

She shrugged again, a strangled grunt coming from the base of her throat as Kili stuck the needle into the wound and began to sew the flesh back together.

Continuing to sew, working speedily so the pain would subside as soon as possible, he kept questioning her with 'yes' or 'no' questions. "Were you hired to kill us?"

She smirked.

"That's not an answer!" He moaned, rubbing his forehead with the back of his grimy hand after tying off the thread at the end of the tear in her upper arm. "And don't…don't shrug! Okay? That's really not helping anything!" He angrily pounded his fist into the ground and instantly regretted it when his fist met a sharp stone. Muttering in dwarvish, he nursed his injured hand.

"Glad to see she hasn't killed you yet, brother," Fili grinned slyly at his little brother, socking him lightly on his shoulder. He turned towards Nierea, "Not that I would blame you if you did." Taking Kili by the ear, he gave the younger dwarf a noogie until Kili smacked at him.

"I still don't know much of anything about her," Kili murmured to Fili. "There's no way Uncle is going to want her with us the rest of the journey. She'll just use up supplies. We don't know either way if she plans on killing one of our company or if her location was simply a coincidence."

Corners of his mouth still turned up, Fili said, "It appears Uncle doesn't believe in coincidences. Was it a coincidence you were near our camp, girl?" The brothers faced her expectantly. She shook her head.

"She keeps doing that, not giving straight answers."

"She's a woman. A woman warrior, at that. Her mind is a mess of riddles and secrets we could never hope to understand. In this case, I think, we just have to formulate the right question," Fili stroked his braided mustache, deep in thought. "This is, of course, assuming she doesn't lie to us."

"I've given her plenty of questions she could have lied about, but she's choosing to be difficult. I think she'll tell the truth, brother," Kili bent over to Nierea's arm, finally wrapping her wound in fresh bandages. The road burn on her side seemed to have healed enough not to bleed through the wrappings, so he didn't bother checking that wound.

"Were you following our company with the intent to do any of us harm?" Nierea blinked in surprise and grinned slightly up at Fili while slowly shaking her head.

Fili ruffled her hair, turning her smile into an annoyed frown. "Now all we have to do is get Thorin to believe it." He offered his wrist to Kili. "Here, tie her to me. You go ask Uncle about what he has heard about her. Then we'll see where we can get with this…situation." Untying Nierea, Kili readied himself to dive for her if she tried to escape. She merely sat still, not caring her talkative captors were changing roles.

Fili lead her away to sit on a rock out of the shade while Kili strode towards his Uncle, waiting for him to stop talking with Dori and Nori about rations. Turning a steely eye on his nephew, he asked, "Has the tramp caused you problems already?"

_Uncle has never been this judgmental or cruel, especially not about a female. _"Uncle, could you tell me, what exactly you have heard about Nierea? It might help."

Sniffing with distain, Thorin replied, "Help? I don't know how. When I was traveling through a village near Bree, I heard tell of a stone silent woman with a penchant for killing. She would kill anything or anyone if someone asked her of it. For free, even! It was said she was a fierce bowman with a bad temper and even worse morals. She killed a mother of two children over a few loaves of bread." Thorin spat on the ground. "The villager said the children disappeared soon after, dead as well, they suspect. A cold-blooded killer and merciless cutthroat, that one. Her signature is to slit the throat of whatever she's killed after they die, to make them silent in the afterlife just as she is in the present time."

Scowling, Thorin continued his story as more dwarves gathered around the pair. "She's bad news, and I plan on turning her over to whichever village we come upon next, if we don't end up killing her first. Come on, we leave in a quarter-hour." Thorin turned from his nephew and began packing his sturdy pack.

His mood steadily decreasing throughout his uncle's story, Kili stormed back towards his brother and Nierea. From his brother's face, it was apparent they had heard the whole conversation. "You killed a _mother_? How low do you sink?" Hardening her face, she refused to let an emotion show through her neutral façade. "If everything said about you is true, you're just as evil as the orcs."

Uneasily hiding her face from Kili, she tilted her head so some of her hair fell over her face. Snapping her teeth at Kili's fingers when he tilted her chin up, he forced her to look up at him. Her eyes sparked with intense fury, which Kili promptly ignored. "Get up. We're leaving." Even while angry he took the time to help her to her feet, untying the rope around Fili's wrist to re-tie it around his own. Hurt at the thought someone he thought was being wrongly punished was a dastardly villain, he moped. Leading Nierea over to the ponies, he grasped his cloak in one hand and slung his pack over his back.

Tightening the straps on his saddle, he placed his hands on her waist, carefully avoiding the injuries on her side. Lifting her to the front of the saddle, he set her down none too gently against the pommel before hopping on behind her. This was going to be a long ride.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you again for all the kind words and follows, you wonderful human beings! This chapter, things get a bit hairy for everyone involved. Let me know what you think! Hmm, what would be an incentive to review? How about this. If you review, I'll choose one new review-er to get a short drabble on whatever they want.

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After bumping along the rock encrusted pathway from midday to the hour of the setting sun without stopping for lunch, Thorin finally allowed the company to set up camp. They corralled the ponies in a speedily-made makeshift pen and Bombur got dinner going for the ravenous company. "Kili, Fili, you two watch the ponies. Bring the girl with you."

They nodded, stomping away in their heavy dwarven boots to keep an eye on the ponies in the forest corral. They could hear the faint noise of the camp, especially the raised voices of Gandalf and Thorin, arguing over whether or not to keep going.

Dusk had long fallen over the company and eyes were heavy with the need for sleep. Feet dragged slowly along the ground, leaves crunching underground as the trio made their way back to the ponies.

Neither of the brothers had spoken to Nierea after their conversation back at their previous camp. Neither of them wanted to. She wasn't going to say anything to prove or disprove anything their uncle said, so what was the point? No matter how badly the brothers wanted to shake an answer out of her, they knew she couldn't be forced. Awkward silence blanketed the group, draining their already depleted energy further.

Jaw twitching in annoyance, Kili turned on Nierea. "Why don't you talk? Or even write? I know you can write, at least. Are you unable to talk or do you just choose not to? Which is it, because you're really starting to get on my nerves with your silence!" Fili faced them, curious as to her answer, if she answered at all.

While Kili was ranting, Nierea kept her gaze trained on the ponies behind them, flicking her eyes back and forth between the cage and the boys.

"…What?" Kili demanded. She nodded her head towards the cage, gesturing as though something was amiss. The boys turned, stifling groans when they saw what Nierea was trying to point out.

"I brought supper!" Bilbo's cheerful voice broke through the silence. Walking up to the trio with bowls of stew balanced in his arms, he glanced back and forth between the stony faced dwarves. "What's the matter?"

"We were supposed to be lookin' after the ponies." Kili started.

"Only, we've encountered a slight problem," Fili finished.

"We had sixteen."

"But now there's fourteen."

After a minute of searching, they discovered Daisy and Bungo were missing. Fili turned to Bilbo. "Let's not bother Uncle…Actually, as our official burglar; we thought _you_ might like to look into it."

"We don't know," Kili began, until Nierea pounced on him forcing him downward and tripping the hobbit in the process. Gripping Nierea by her untied hair, he brought her face extremely close to his, anger burning in his eyes. She dragged her hands towards her face, motioning for quiet. Fili ducked down with them just in time to avoid being seen by a monstrous troll. Field grass shielding them from sight, they watched the beastly troll amble toward the ponies. It snatched two more up under its arms and went on its way. The hobbit, dwarves, and woman slithered on their bellies along the ground to remain hidden while tracking the troll to its camp.

"We have to do something!" Bilbo said, bemoaning the future fate of their ponies.

Hiding behind a fallen tree, they watched the troll deposit two more ponies into a makeshift pen. "Yes," Kili whispered, nudging Bilbo forward. "You should!"

"Just hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl if you're in danger," Fili encouraged him. "We'll be right behind you!" Nierea gave them a disbelieving look as they pushed the hobbit into eminent danger. Her stare mutated into a severe glare, instantly hardening her face as she waited for the Hobbit to return.

"C'mon, we've got to go grab Thorin," Fili crashed through the undergrowth back towards the camp, dragging Kili and Nierea along with him.

"Thorin," Fili roared in unison with Kili, "We have a situation; Trolls 're taking the ponies. We've sent the burglar to investigate, but-"

"You did _what_?" Thorin growled; throwing down the stone he was using to sharpen his sword. "And where'd you leave the murderess?"

Kili was left staring stupidly after his Uncle as the company gathered their arms and prepared to rescue the hobbit. Gathering his wits, he cursed Nierea for slipping away when she had the chance. "No good, lying, hell-seeking woman," he spat under his breath, galloping after his uncle. By this time, he was moving fast enough that overtook the thumping step of his Uncle and nearly ran over Bilbo. The poor hobbit was out of breath and wide-eyed with fear.

Choking on his own saliva, Bilbo pointed back towards the trolls. "She…they…caught…" His voice came out in spurts as he tried to regain his breath.

Kili burst through the undergrowth, still blind in his rage. "Uraagh!" He roared, slashing one of the trolls across the back of its leg, momentarily felling it in a few strokes of his sword. "Drop her."

"O' what?" One of the two trolls left standing clenched Nierea in their fists, tightly rendering her unable to move.

"I said," Kili smiled evilly, swinging his sword in a wide, arching circle, "Drop her."

Spitting in anger, Nierea's captor chucked her towards Kili. Landed roughly on Kili as he scrambled to drop his sword and catch her, the pair of them skipped against the ground once and lay still, Nierea's head resting above the beat of Kili's shock-speeded heart. Nierea's face tightened in agony due to her wounds, but she scrambled to her feet, yanking Kili up with her as the rest of the dwarves (and one hobbit) swarmed the three mountain trolls.

Swords swung, hacked, and sliced through small slivers of the troll's thick hide. Nierea was a whirlwind of flying fists and small hidden blades she must have disguised in her clothes. She aimed for eyes, mostly trying to target the troll's weakest joints and organs. A wide smile split her lips apart, her teeth exposed in the pure adrenaline from the heat of battle. She spotted Bilbo attempting to swing one of the troll's oversized pigstickers to cut through the ropes caging the trapped ponies.

Unfortunately, a troll spotted him, as well.

Clenching her teeth, she rolled off of one of the bucking troll's shoulders, getting in between the charging troll and Bilbo. Angry at his lost prize, the troll gripped her by her injured arm, causing her eyes to roll back into her skull in pain. He swatted Dwalin away from one of his companions and sat in front of the company, allowing his fellow troll to hold an arm and a leg while he held her other limbs still. She struggled in their grip, to no avail.

"Lie down yer arms, o' we'll rip 'ers off!" The troll crowed gleefully, sniffing Nierea's hair and nearly salivating. "Mmm, she smells delicious. I haven't eaten a woman in years! Except that one old woman, but she was all stringy and tough. Ow!" His fellow troll swatted him over his thick skull. Nierea was shaking her head violently. She wanted them to keep fighting.

"What makes you think we care about her?" Thorin growled. "It would go better for us if she were dead!" None the less, he drove his sword into the soil. Watching a woman being torn apart by trolls wasn't something pleasant to behold.

In her frustration, Nierea chose that moment to thrust her toes to end of her moccasins and reveal knives in the toes of her shoes. Stabbing upward with her feet, her knives connected with the tissue of the trolls' hands and they squealed. All the while, her arms were wrenching around. Kili winced as he watched her arm get bent backwards in the trolls' attempt to restrain her. She never stopped fighting until the Troll not keeping ahold of her whacked her over the head with a stone. Her head rolled forward with a sickening thump as her body limply hung from the trolls' meaty hands.

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Big thanks goes out to ask-sexykili on Tumblr for editing all of my chapters. If you want to contact ME through tumblr, my RP blog is ask-sexykiliandfili and my main blog's url is a-different-type-of-pretty. I appreciate all feedback. 3


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry this chapter took so long in being published, college has been stealing my attention away from my writing because of midterms and the like. Please, enjoy this chapter and feel free to message or review! Unfortunately, no one reviewed since the contest began, so no one won the ficlet. Pity! But maybe I'll make another contest sometime soon. Cheers, lovely readers.

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Ori couldn't take it anymore and thrust down his slingshot. "Stop! Don't 'urt 'er," he cried. The rest of the company reluctantly followed Ori's example. Kili was the last to relinquish his sword to the dirt, tossing his weapon down with the force of a well-aimed blow.

The trolls gathered up the dwarves, shoving them one by one into grimy burlap sacks. They didn't bother to tie Nierea up, believing she was either dead already or in no condition to fight back if she did indeed wake from their onslaught. Body brimming with anger, Kili cursed their ill luck. The only good that had come of the raid was their ponies had escaped with their lives, thanks to Bilbo. He nearly complained aloud about Ori's soft heartedness, stopping only as Bilbo hobbled towards the Trolls, a gaggle of Dwarves already roasting on a slow-turning spit high over the fire.

The dwarves remained irately within sacks as Bilbo stalled for time until Gandalf rescued them with the daylight.

Upon being freed, Kili stretched his muscles leisurely, enjoying each crack and pop of bone as he regained feeling in his body after being crushed under Bombur. Bilbo immediately rushed to Nierea's side, brushing her hair away from her face with tight, worried movements. "Gandalf!" He cried, his voice cracking with anxiety. The grey bearded wizard hurried to the hobbit's side, his face ashen. The damage to Nierea's body was severe, that much was obvious from the awkward angle her body lay upon the ground. Kili meandered over to the crowd forming around her, his conscience prickling with worry.

"If she dies, that saves us the trouble of turning her in," Thorin scowled, only to have Bilbo glare protectively into his eyes. "She saved my life, you know. She wouldn't have gotten injured had she not…" Bilbo choked on his words, his eyes filling up with tears as he snuffled and realized he was the cause of her pain, possibly her death.

"Spit it out, burglar," Kili growled. "In what way is this not entirely her fault?"

Bilbo glowered at the princeling. "She got between one of the Trolls and I while I had been trying to free the ponies, not to mention when she pushed me out of the way of the Trolls the first time they nearly caught me." He spun on Fili, shaking a finger at the brothers. "She thought it was foolish of you two to have sent me out there alone, so she slipped her bonds to rescue me. And you still treat her as a dangerous animal we'd be better without. She's as kind as you lot, just in her own way. Maybe even kinder," he added with a pointed glare at Thorin.

"I saw 'er, too," Bofur added. "She got between the 'obbit and the troll like she 'ad no fear."

Thorin spat upon the ground, unable to argue with his company. Mumbling, "Fix her if you can, Gandalf, but we do not take kindly to deadweight on such a journey," he stormed off, calling every available dwarf to help him search for a troll treasure cash.

Kili stared down at the unconscious girl. Figuring her out would be a task maybe even the best and brightest couldn't figure out, but he'd do his damnedest to try. Truthfully, no one here knew much about her aside from the stories their Uncle had been told. Such stories usually had two sides to them, he knew, but he had chosen to ignore that. Comfortable biases were rampant among dwarves, them with their stubborn mindsets. Looking down at her, now, no one would believe she was a murderess. Not while she was covered in her own blood. Luckily, the stone the Troll had hit her with hadn't cracked her skull, even though it left a bleeding gash. How she hadn't bled out while the trolls were attempting to cook the company was a mystery in itself.

Gandalf ran a hand over her body, muttering in a foreign language. Kili thought he felt a crackling of magic in the air, but that might have been the painful crack as Fili set Nierea's arm back in its rightful place. She was covered in bruises and scratches that were expected after a battle, but it was obvious she'd sustained the worst injuries of the company. Her eyes flashed open as she gasped for breath, the immense pain twisting her face into a mask of agony. Setting her jaw, she took a few moments to compose herself.

"What type of woman tries to fight troll?" Kili growled at her, earning himself a sour look from his brother and Gandalf. "You're barely a third of its size, you idiot. Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Fili asked, nudging his brother to clarify.

"Why would she save Bilbo? She owes us nothing!" He yelled, finally out of patience for the whole situation. Gandalf helped her sit up straight as he continued healing her. The head wound was slowly repairing itself, but it wouldn't be completely healed for a while. Fili began wrapping her arm in part of his cloak and added a few sticks to make a splint and sling for her arm, stopping when she leaned forward to scribe something in the dirt.

"You needed him." She scrawled simply, facing Kili and giving him a weak smile before returning to her usual, neutral façade. Nodding her gratitude towards Gandalf, she pushed off of the ground with her uninjured arm, attempting to get to her feet. Weakness wasn't something in her vocabulary; pain was something to make her stronger, but she didn't complain when Kili hauled her to her feet, taking care not to injure her further. Her first steps were wobbly, reminiscent of when her legs were squashed in the Trolls' grip. He steadied her, allowing her to lean on him momentarily before she got her balance. Brushing off his grip on her, she strode in the direction of the rest of the dwarves. Cradling her wounded arm to her chest, she ignored all of the other pain signals in her body. Aside from her arm, if someone had seen her from afar, they'd never know she had been beaten unconscious.

Reaching the trolls' cave, she was the only one to not turn up her nose at the disgusting scent of rotting flesh, mold and general decay. The past few years had readied her for nearly anything battle related.

Groping her way down into the cave, she steadied herself against the slime-coated walls of the trove until she could stand on the mostly flat stone floor. She picked up a rag that might have been a dress at one time, wrinkling her nose in disgust as bones of a hand clattered out of the cloth. Rolling her eyes, she meandered around the cave, ignoring Thorin's warnings of severe punishment if she touched anything. Spotting a few daggers stuck in the skull of some poor man, she yanked out the blades, grinning as she realized they weren't too decayed to be used. She tucked them into the folds of her shirt and went on her way, following the rest of the dwarves as they vacated the stinky hole.

Missing her step as she reached the entrance of the cave, she gasped. Nearly toppling back down the steep incline, Kili's arm shot out, catching her. He'd positioned himself against the entrance wall as though he was waiting for her to leave the cave. He tried to avoid squeezing her bruised ribs as he repositioned her in his grip. "You've got to be more careful," he mumbled gruffly. He didn't like what he couldn't understand. If she saved Bilbo, she couldn't be half as bad as Thorin made her out to be. He had to have proof one way or the other to her innocence or guilt before he made any form of decision about this strange girl.

"I never did ask," he examined her face for signs of, well, anything, really. "You are human, correct, despite your short stature? So how did you learn how to run as though you were light as an elf?" It was something that had been bothering him since he first spotted her in the forest. Her face lit up at the question, her eyes seeming to look at something faraway in her past before she stood on guard once again as Gandalf yelled, warning them to be ready for company.

Guarding her arm, she positioned herself at her most advantageous position with her new knives facing outward while Kili readied his bow. When the brown wizard burst through the bushes with cries of murder and black magic, she half expected him to be after her, but he took the company of Gandalf instead.

Ignoring Kili and straining to hear the wizards' conversation, she only managed to catch snippets of their conversation. The eccentric brown wizard, whose name seemed to be Radagast, mentioned Angar, the witch-king, and told of his possible return to life.

Shrugging, she assumed his speech of the moment wasn't going to end badly for her, this time. She did wonder what might happen if the motley crew of dwarves found out she seemed to have the protection of something from the Witch-King's lair. Craning her neck to get a better handle on her surroundings, she peered at the dwarves in her company. Each was distinct in their personalities and appearances, but she'd bet that each was just as stubborn as the next.

Letting her gaze wander, something prickled at the back of her neck, just as it always did when something dangerous was near. Moments later, the forest rang with the howl of Wargs. A single Warg burst through the brush, tackling Oin to the ground, jaws snapping at open air as Thorin swung his sword through the furry flesh around its throat, killing it instantly. Nierea felt the whoosh of an arrow dodge past her head as it buried itself into the eye of a second rampaging Warg readying itself to pounce on Thorin simultaneously as she buried one of her throwing knives into its other eye. Its dying screech echoed through the forest, calling to whatever pack it came from

"Warg scouts," Thorin angrily observed, "which means an orc pack is not far behind."

Gandalf stormed up towards him. "Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" He bellowed, spittle flying from his lips.

"No one!"

"Who did you tell?"

"No one, I swear!" Thorin stepped closer to the angry wizard. "What in gods name is going on?"

Gandalf searched Thorin's face for any dishonesty. Finding none, he growled in annoyance and spun around, surveying the likely happenings of the near future if they were to stay put. "We are being hunted," he harrumphed.

"We have to get out of here," said Dwalin as he eyed the forest.

"I'll draw them off," Radagast suggested, staring intently into Gandalf's eyes.

"Those are Gundabad Wargs, they will outrun you!" Shaking his head, Gandalf disregarded the idea.

"These are rhosgobel rabbits," Radagast smiled knowingly. "I'd like to see them try." Without waiting for a reply, he hopped back on his rabbit-drawn sled and took off in the direction the Wargs had come.

Thorin yelled for everyone to gather, preparing to run across the open plain nearby to reach safety. "Kili, tie her to you again," Thorin said, tossing him a rope. "We can't afford for her to get in contact with the orcs if they are her employers." Kili didn't argue, not this time. His Uncle had more important things to worry about.

"Sorry 'bout this," he mumbled. Rolling her eyes, she tried to shrug, failing and wincing instead. It would have been safer to be untied, but she understood that Thorin's job consisted of keeping his men safe and alive. He couldn't yet trust her, despite her rescue of the hobbit. She just wanted her bow back. She couldn't shake the guilt of leaving it behind on the forest floor to be picked up by whatever wayward beast happened upon it.

Expelling a tired breath through her teeth, she wound her hand within Kili's. It would be easier to run this way, being able to better sense the other person's movements by the shifting of their muscles.

Moments later, Thorin gave the sign, and they were off. For better or for worse.


	5. Chapter 5

It has been a long time, my dear readers. BUT: Spring break is finally upon me, so I have an entire week to try to get a second chapter up before it's back to college. I love you all, and if you review you'll bring a smile to my face. Cheers, loves!

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Dodging behind boulders at the slightest click of claws against the ground, Nierea kept light on her feet to avoid being jerked along with the company as Radagast and his rabbits bounded past.

"Come and get me!" He crowed, laughing maniacally and expertly tipping the sled on its rails as he rounded curve after curve.

"Stay together!" Gandalf commanded as the dwarves navigated around a jagged boulder.

Rushing across the barren land, they managed to stay out of sight of the orcs and wargs. Quick reflexes and a bit of luck saved Ori when he nearly ran off of a cliff, only to have Thorin snatch him back with a shout of "Ori, no!"

"Where are you leading us?" Thorin scowled at the wizard as his company marched past the King and the wizard.

Gandalf didn't reply, earning a glare and a heaving sigh from the dwarf king. Heavily pounding their feet along the ground, the company moved as quickly as they could.

Despite the dwarves' short stature, they were rather swift on their feet, dodging out of trouble's way at a seconds notice. Spying a Warg and rider coming up near them, Thorin shoved dwarf after dwarf against a nearby towering pile of stone. Motioning for silence, the company waited as the Warg snuffed noisily in the air, trying to catch their scent. Thorin nodded at Kili's bow, staring intently at the young dwarf until he responded with a nod of his own. Momentarily, he forgot he was attached to Nierea, so when he moved to shoot at the Warg, his hand dragged inaccurately at the bowstring, the extra second costing him a bad shot. Nierea tried to sync her movements to his for the next shot he took as he and Dwalin took down the Warg while Bifur took down the charging orc. Unfortunately, the dying shrieks called to the other Wargs and orcs waiting to find and kill their prey.

"Move! Run!" Gandalf yelled, already putting his feet into motion against the gravelly earth. Everyone followed, too scared or too wise to argue in such a dire situation. They reached about midway between the edges of the plain, not far enough to make a safe escape. They were surrounded.

Yelling, the dwarves called out to each other as they fought off Wargs and orcs alike. This would not end well, unless something drastic changed, immediately.

As Kili continued firing shot after shot into the misshapen flesh of orcs and Wargs alike, Nierea watched his back, moving her arm with his so his shots were accurate despite the rope attaching their arms together.

Pausing when Dwalin yelled, "Gandalf has abandoned us!" Nierea grit her teeth. She doubted the dwarf had any evidence to back that statement up, aside from the fact that he couldn't actually see the wizard at this moment.

She noticed the dwarves looking around in despair, certain their quest would end here and now. Spitting on the ground, she quietly severed her ties to Kili as he released a new bout of arrows, his face raw with anger and exhilaration. He didn't notice the lack of pull at his wrist.

"This way, you fools!"

Gandalf's voice broke through the sounds of battle, relieving the company immensely. They had a way to escape! Gandalf motioned for the dwarves to slide down a hole in the ground to escape the oncoming pack of Wargs that had not yet reached them. Everyone converged upon the hole, each doing their best to protect each other's backs in the process.

Thorin slit a Warg's throat as Bombur rolled down the steep entrance to the cave, glancing about wildly for his nephews. Spotting Fili, he motioned for him to go down into the cave, but he refused to do so until his brother was with him. "Kili!" Thorin roared, finally spotting his nephew still a hundred feet away, firing arrow after arrow into orc and Warg skulls alike. So intent upon his fight was he, he didn't notice Nierea reach into his arrow pack and remove a razor tipped arrow.

Thorin started towards his nephew, believing Nierea about to stab Kili with his own arrow, he nearly shouted a warning, until Nierea's voice broke through the air.

"Gid outta the way!" Her heavy burr (in earth terms, her heavy Scottish accent) shocked the company, Kili especially, as he was the closest to hear it.

Nierea spun after shoving Kili out of the flashing paws of an especially dirty Warg, eyes flashing as she drove the arrow through the rider less Warg's eye and into its brain with her uninjured arm. Tsking and yanking Kili along towards the cave entrance, she shoved the brothers down the hole in the ground before following, herself.

They barely had a moment to recuperate once Thorin slid down after Nierea to escape the battle when battle horns sounded. A singular wolf howl joined the battle cries of the elves as Wargs and orcs screamed their defiance in the face of utter defeat. The body of one unlucky orc fell into the dwarves' hiding place, killed by an elven arrow to his throat, leaving a gaping hole for him to gasp his dying breaths through.

"Elves." Thorin spat the word out of his mouth, glancing scornfully at the arrow imbedded within the orc's flesh. Nierea ignored Kili's attempts to speak with her, preferring to wander down the tunnel within the cave. Surprisingly, when she tugged Dwalin with her, he went along with her.

"I can't see where the pathway leads," Dwalin called, investigating the deep pathway along the cave wall. "Do we follow it, or no?"

"Oh for- Follow it, of course!" Bofur exclaimed, exasperated. "Where else 'ould we go?"

Despite the grumbling of their majestic leader, the company of dwarves filed through the tunnel in a single line; the tunnel was too skinny for more than one person to fit through at once. Bombur had a difficult time walking along the trail without getting stuck as it was. The further the path lead, the brighter Nierea's smile lit. She'd used this tunnel often enough throughout her life, she was glad Gandalf was the one to spot it. It was doubtful Thorin would have allowed her to lead them anywhere, even if it would save their lives.

Reaching the tunnel's end was exhilarating. She shoved past the dwarves, practically dancing down the steps. Rubbing her injured arm, which had long turned numb from the pain, she bit her bottom lip to hide her grin. As long as she was here, her arm could be healed, and she could craft a new bow. She overheard Thorin's grumbling voice speak to Gandalf.

"This was your plan all along. To seek refuge with our enemy."

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only ill will to be found in this valley is that which you bring, yourself."

"You think the elves will give our quest their blessing?" Thorin shook his head in disbelief. "They will try to stop us!"

"Of course they will! But we have questions that need to be answered." Thorin huffed, relenting as Gandalf continued. "If we are to be successful in this, it must be handled with tact. And respect. And no small degree of charm. Which is why you will leave the talking to me." Gandalf began the descent into Rivendell, quickly being overtaken by Nierea as she sprinted ahead of the company.

The dwarves followed swiftly after her as she took off towards the lofted entrance of Rivendell, shouting in annoyance as she raced off without an explanation. Pausing at a central meeting area just inside the gates of Rivendell, she took a deep breath, inhaling the calming, familiar scents of the Elven land.

Sobering her face as the dwarves circled around her, mulling around as Gandalf asked the dark haired elf, Lindir, about the whereabouts of Lord Elrond. Judging by the horns she heard earlier, Lord Elrond would be returning soon. She had no doubt he was to blame for their timely rescue. Her suspicions were quickly proven right as Lord Elrond's party of warriors upon horses rode into the valley.

"Get back! Close ranks!" Thorin roared as the horses and riders began trotting around the party of dwarves, circling them repeatedly. Nierea and Bilbo were thrust into the center of the company, out of the way of stamping hooves. The dwarves' eyes cast about wildly at the surrounding elves, weapons and beards bristling. Kili attempted to stab at one elf in particular as the elf reached over their heads and plucked Nierea from their ranks, settling her on his horse in front of him. Whispering in her ear, the elf passed her on to another horse, where she was set down again on the solid ground.

She spun around, looking for someone; a friend. Spotting him as he leaped from his horse, he ran to greet her. Picking her up, he spun her around in the air, holding her close as he laughed.

"Nierea, it has been far too long." The elf leaned his forehead against her shoulder, burying his face into the crook of her neck. A light, tinkling laugh bubbled out of her as she tangled her hands in his hair, wincing as she bent her arm slightly. Noticing the flinch, the elven warrior held her out in front of him before setting her down. Intently studying her face, the elf ran his hands lightly over her shoulders and arms as she tightened her lips into a thin white line and stared away from him.

"You are injured."

"…"

"Who injured you? Was it one of these dwarves?" His words held no malice towards the dwarves, but his eyes showed the horrors to come for he who would dare hurt Nierea. She shook her head, looking down at her feet. "Nierea," the elf took her face in his hands, "Love, you can trust me. How did you come by these injuries?"

Pursing her lips, she rolled her eyes as she yanked up the sleeve on her top to expose the scabbed scar from where the arrowhead had pierced her skin. "Renian, yer not m'love," she mumbled. "I can handle myself." Jerking the sleeve back down to cover the wound, she winced as part of the scab caught on the fabric and ripped away.

Indignant, he scowled incredulously at her, lightly running his hands over the rest of her body. Feeling the scabbing on her sides from her slide over a cliff, he clicked his tongue. "Bawdy girl, what'd you try to go fight, now? I better not hear you've been acting as an spy for father, again. Warrior or no, he doesn't have any right to put you in deliberate danger," he complained.

Throwing up her hands, she backed away from Renian. "'N what if I asked him to?" Glaring at him, she continued barreling on. "What if I'm sick of yer 'protection'?" She jerkily curled her fingers in air quotes. "I only came here t'learn, not to be coddled. Y've taught me much, s'time to pay ye back."

"Back off, elf, she's our prisoner," Kili stupidly interrupted them, angrily striding up to elf, not even managing to come up to his shoulder. Moving backwards a bit so he could glare into the elf's face, he continued, "She'll be stayin' with us." Grasping Nierea's hand, he intended to pull her along with him as the dwarves were invited in for a meal.

Moments later, he found himself tossed flat onto his buttocks as Nierea jerked out of his grip, flung him down, and stood over him, breathing hard as her face skewed with anger.

Renian held back a smile at the surprise on the Dwarf's face. "She doesn't take kindly to doing things she doesn't like. She might not always be the most talkative of females, but she can rival any of the men when it comes to fighting or hunting."

Glowering at the elf to make him stop talking, she sat on Kili's torso.

"You ought to thank her, dwarf," Renian chuckled, ignoring Nierea's glare. "She sent Darius ahead when you lot 'captured' her so we could make certain you all got here safe."

"Darius?" Kili said, holding back a gulp as Nierea didn't move off of him.

"I hope you remember Darius, he indirectly saved your lives," Renian mockingly teased the dwarf. Jumping under Nierea's weight as a wolf howled nearby, Kili glanced about with confusion. Nierea answered the call with a piercing, inhuman howl of her own, the sound vibrating her entire body. Kili shivered at how similar the sound was to the howl of a Warg.

Bowling her over in his excitement, Darius joyfully greeted Nierea. Never had they been parted from each other so long, but Nierea had correctly assumed that the dwarves would have killed Darius rather than let a wolf travel with them. Darius was only slightly smaller than the average Warg. Licking her cheeks and arms, Darius grinned wolfishly at her as he sat back on his haunches while she scratched behind his ears and scruff. Kili sat up, freed of Nierea's slight frame covering his torso.

"Darius has been awaiting your arrival quite impatiently," Renian noted aloud. "He gets quite crabby when he's not near you. More than one of my father's aides suffered sharp nips when they tried to move him from the gateway."

"…Sounds like the wolf and Nierea are quite sim…il…ar…" Kili started to say, trailing off as Nierea's glare found him once again. "What?"

"I wouldn't call Darius 'the wolf' if you wish to keep your head attached to your shoulders," Renian informed him. "He's her best friend, has been since she left Bree seven years ago."

"You're from Bree?" Kili's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Since they called you the Mummer of Carn Dûm, I assumed…"

"Well, ye assumed wrong," she mumbled. Even though she was now able to break her vow of silence once she'd stepped foot on elven soil, she still didn't much feel like talking. She was rather hungry. "Let's get ye inside wid' th'rest of the dwarves. Seems Lord Elrond offered 'em solace." Taking the hand Renian offered to her to help her up, she turned and offered Kili the same courtesy, much to the dissatisfaction of the elf. Striding after the pack of elves and dwarves (and one wizard and one confused hobbit), Nierea left Kili and Renian behind, Darius trotting alongside her right side. First, she'd visit the house of healing, and then she'd join the dwarves. Had she glanced back, she might have seen the annoyed, jealous glance Renian gave Kili as he tossed his hair and glided away from the dwarf.


End file.
